


i know you're in there, carlton drake

by bellafarallones



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Carlton Drake has more PhDs than friends, Fluff, Kissing, Loneliness, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 00:19:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16397840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellafarallones/pseuds/bellafarallones
Summary: Instead of killing Venom, Riot decides to drag him and Eddie along on his journey back to his own planet. Eddie's only hope of escape is friendship (and maybe more) with Carlton Drake.





	i know you're in there, carlton drake

**Author's Note:**

> Carlton Drake is much nicer and more sympathetic here than in the film, so please don't think I'm minimizing the awful things he did. I'm just out here to make myself happy.

Eddie had been chained on the rocket for hours now, and anger had long given way to exhaustion. All he had was Venom’s comforting presence in the back of his mind. 

The rocket hadn’t been designed to hold a prisoner, and Riot had been forced to restrain Eddie in one of the lesser-used control rooms. 

Speak of the Devil - Riot’s heavy steps announced his arrival. “Hey, Carlton!” yelled Eddie as soon as the hulking figure stepped through the door.

The beast turned around.  **We are Riot.**

“Yeah, yeah, but I know Carlton is in there. You’re giving me one of his looks right now, and by the way, it’s one of the endearing ones. Carlton, how do you feel about all this? If you really wanted my company all this time, you could have just asked. I’m sure you had the resources to send a guy flowers.”

Riot grumbled and turned back to the console.

**What are you doing?** said Venom when Riot had left.  **You can’t seriously want to make conversation with that asshole. He and Riot deserve each other.**

“I know that the Carlton Drake who cured cancer in there somewhere. I also know he’s our only shot at escape.”

**I hope you’re right that we have any shot at all.**

A moment of silence. Engines whirred as they carried two men and two symbiotes through space. “So,” said Eddie. “As long as we’re here. What was up with what happened in the forest? You know, with… us.”

**Oh, yeah,** said Venom.  **That. I don’t know.** He sounded almost sheepish, if a deep and disembodied voice could. 

“It certainly wasn’t Anne’s idea.”

**No, I suppose not.**

“So it was yours?”

**Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say-**

“Buddy, it’s okay. I don’t mind. It was one of the better kisses I’ve had in my life, and I’m glad it was with you.”

**Oh. Thank you. In that case, yeah, it was my idea. I didn’t think it through all that well. I just wanted to be close to you.**

Eddie opened his hand and Venom’s dark ooze flowed between his fingers like they were holding hands. “I’m yours,” whispered Eddie. “And I promise I’ll get us both out of here.”

\--

“Hey, Carlton!”

The beast gave him a very Carlton look now, a look of guarded interest.

“I don’t have much to entertain me here, you know, chained up for a months-long voyage. Wanna chat sometime?”

**I don’t know what you could possibly want from me.**

“Well, I did my research on you. I’m a big fan of that early-childhood education program you sponsored. It won an award from some teachers’ union, didn’t it? I’d love to hear more about it from the man itself.”

Riot licked his lips like he was thinking. Now it was Carlton’s eyes on Eddie’s, Carlton’s inclination to statistics on how to effectively teach kids how to read.  **If you really want to know. I poached a couple of PhDs to help me with the curriculum from the Department of Education, which wasn’t paying them nearly what they were worth.**

“Did you ever go visit the school yourself?”

**Oh, of course.**

“What was it like?”

**I enjoyed it. Children are always so curious.** Riot seemed to be shrinking then, like Carlton and his lithe suit-clad form was fighting his way out through the layers of oozing muscle, but then the teeth and tongue and claws came back. 

“What’s gonna happen to those kids when we get back to Earth with a rocketload of symbiotes?”

The tension returned to Riot’s limbs and he shook his head like he was arguing with himself before stalking out of the room.

Eddie sagged in the chains. God, those glimpses of the real Carlton Drake were intoxicating. He liked Venom a lot, but there was something about seeing another human.

\--

It was the rocket’s artificial nighttime, Eddie dozing in his chains, when Carlton Drake arrived. Alone. Eddie could see it in the relaxed line of his shoulders. He knelt in front of Eddie, face to face. “What do you  _ want? _ ” he hissed. “I know you hate me. Why do you keep talking to me?”

“I don’t hate you,” said Eddie. “You’ve done some things I don’t like, sure. But you’re a really driven guy, and I can respect that. I think I can even relate.”

Carlton Drake hung his head. “Thanks.”

“And you’re  _ human.  _ I can’t help feeling drawn to the only other human for light-years around.” Eddie fastened his gaze on Carlton, trying to get him to look up and make eye contact. 

Carlton didn’t look up. “I didn’t think I’d feel so alone out here,” he said softly.

“Hey, you’re not alone. I’m here.”

Carlton reached out one hand, stopped an inch from Eddie’s shoulder. “Can I - can I touch you?”

“Knock yourself out. I’m all yours.” Eddie was expecting a kiss, tried to remember when he last brushed his teeth.

Carlton threw both his arms around Eddie’s neck and hugged him close. “I never thought I’d be this lonely,” he repeated softly as though he didn’t quite believe it himself.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t even be here. But I wanted to say, Eddie, I’m sorry about a lot of this. And I’m glad you’re here. And willing to talk to me. Thank you.” Carlton got to his feet, brushed dust off his knees, and left the room without saying goodnight.

Brock didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to press his luck.

**I can’t believe that worked.**

“We’re not free yet.”

**C’mon, he can definitely get us out. Riot can’t do shit.**

“Are you only underestimating him because he’s a dick?”

**Maybe. A little.**

\--

“Good morning, Carlton,” said Eddie when Riot walked into the room again, and those huge inky limbs went stiff. 

**Shut the fuck up.** Riot’s voice.

“Anyway, Carlton, I was thinking about what you said yesterday, and I just remembered that Anne’s niece was in one of your programs. I went to her birthday party, she was so excited to get a fish tank because of what she’d been learning at school. You did a great job getting kids to care about science.”

Riot raised a fist like he was gonna use it to shut Eddie up for good, but lowered it again. Was Carlton Drake in there fighting for his own life?

“I bet the generation of scientists you inspired could have saved the planet even without the help of symbiotes. Did you just not want to wait twenty years?”

**Please don’t push it,** murmured Venom.

Eddie fell silent. After a moment or two, Riot’s hulking mass melted back into Carlton’s trim form.

“Does it hurt to think about Anne’s niece? After what happened between you and her?” Carlton’s voice was soft with curiosity.

“A little bit. But you know, we’re still friends.”

“Really? After what you did to her?”

“Yeah, I fucked up pretty bad, didn’t I?”

A short, uncomfortable laugh. “I’ll say.”

“I apologized to her. And the human capacity for forgiveness is astonishing. We’re not gonna get back to where we were, but we’re friends, and I’m grateful for that.”

\--

Darkness fell again, and Carlton returned. There was a look in his eyes like he was nervous but hopeful. Not angry, like Riot always was. 

“Hey, Carlton,” said Eddie softly. “Good to see you again.”

Drake said nothing, but sank down on the floor next to Eddie, his back against the wall. “Hey.”

“So how’s it going? Are we almost there?”

“It’ll be a while. I think Riot exaggerated his skill as a pilot.”

**_I_ ** **could have told you he’d do that.**

Eddie laughed. “Venom says he’s not surprised.”

Carlton nodded. “How is Venom? He doing okay?”

**I’m fine,** said Venom with a note of surprise in his voice.

“He’s okay.”

“What about you?”

“I’m chained up on a spaceship, and my home planet and everyone and everything I love are gonna be destroyed. What about you?”

“I’m in the same boat. Well, on the same ship.”

“You could actually do something about it.”

“You of all people should know how difficult it is to work with a symbiote. No offense, Venom.” Carlton picked at his cuticle. “I didn’t think I’d feel this alone. Back on Earth, I didn’t really have much in the way of friends, so I thought I wouldn’t miss having humans around. But I do.”

“As far as I know, you were around a lot of people every day. Working with scientists, all that. The kids who visited. Journalists.” Eddie met Carlton’s eye. “So I’m not surprised. I’m sorry you feel alone.”

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“Does Riot know you came to see me? Or that you’re here now?”

“Nah, he doesn’t bother looking through my head unless he particularly wants something.”

They sat together in silence for a moment, watching the stars go by. Though their situation was a steaming pile of shit, Eddie reflected, at least the stars were beautiful.

**You should tell him that he should have told his people to put us near the window when he was hauling us back to Earth. It would have made the trip a lot more pleasant.**

Eddie started to laugh.

“What?” Carlton looked around.

“Just something Venom said.”

“Oh,” said Carlton sadly.

“Would it freak you out to see him?”

“I should hope not. I’m pretty used to Riot.”

And then Venom was there, Venom’s dark head appearing out of Eddie’s back to float in the air between them.  **Hey, Dr. Drake.**

“Nice to meet you outside the lab.”

**Yeah, I have some critiques of your experimental procedure. You acknowledged that we were sentient, intelligent beings, but never thought to ask us what we needed instead of forcing us to kill all your test subjects?**

Carlton thought for a moment, partially unzipping his jacket as he did. Then he seemed to settle on a smile. “Oh, Eddie, how do you live with this guy inside your head all the time?”

“He has his charms.” Eddie tried to reach out to touch Venom’s head affectionately, but then remembered he was chained up. “Shit.” 

Venom poked at his cheek with his tongue and laughed his deep laugh.  **I love when you can’t do anything and I don’t even have to go to the trouble of controlling you.**

“You could have stopped me, you know.” Carlton wasn’t looking at them, seemed to be deep in his own head.

“What? Are you trying to say that this is all  _ my  _ fault?”

“Oh, no, it’s on me. I’m suggesting that you have more power than you might realize. I guess I’m encouraging you not to give up.”

“How could I have stopped you?”

“If you’d done the interview as planned, I would have asked you to come to my office afterwards to speak privately. I was thinking about commissioning you to write a book for me.”

“A  _ book?” _

“Part memoir, part advice for young entrepreneurs and scientists, you get the idea.”

“You wanted  _ me  _ to ghostwrite your memoir?”

“I never imagined you would give up the chance to put your name on the cover next to mine, but yes. I  _ liked  _ you, Eddie Brock, and you could have used that to your advantage in so many ways.”

The use of the past tense was not lost on Eddie. “When did you think this all through?”

“Generally in business, after a project fails, you do a post-mortem, identifying why things fell apart. I like to do  _ pre-mortems.  _ Before I embark on anything, I sit down and imagine all the ways it could fail.”

“Did you do one of those for this expedition?”

“No. Riot insisted we leave immediately. But I’m thinking about it now. A mid-mortem, if you will.”

“And how could this all fail?”

“Well, I think you’d have to somehow convince me to abandon the project that has defined my adult life.”

“Okay, and after I do that, what next? Could you convince Riot?”

“He and I could tear your chains out of the wall and turn this ship around if he wanted to, but I don’t think I could convince him. He doesn’t like me the way I like… uh, liked you. I don’t know what I could do.  _ If _ I was convinced to try to sabotage this project.”

“Hey, Carlton?”

“Hm?”

“These chains are restraining  _ me.  _ If you took Venom, the two of you could do pretty much whatever you and Riot could.”

**Maybe more, since I’m not such a goddamn asshole.**

“Hey, Eddie?”

“Hm?”

Carlton grinned. “I’m convinced.” Then he stuck out his hand. 

Venom extended one hesitant tendril, which wrapped around Carlton’s little finger before melting into it. Eddie sagged a little as his symbiote left him. Without Venom’s moderating influence, the chains chafed his wrists and his muscles complained about having been in the same position for hours.

“Oh, this is different,” murmured Carlton. He carried himself differently than when he had Riot inside him.

“You gonna rip these chains out of the wall or what?”

Venom’s face dripped over Carlton’s. “Of course. I’d almost forgot,” he said with a fanged smile, and extended a huge claw.

“Wait!” said Carlton’s voice suddenly. “I didn’t realize you literally meant rip them out. We’re on a spaceship. I would not recommend compromising the structural integrity of the walls. But we could probably unscrew them somehow if you could fashion one of our appendages into a screwdriver…”

Venom grumbled, but did as Carlton suggested. It was a few minutes until Eddie was free, too weak and sore to hold himself up. Venom caught him, and it was very strange to be touching Venom’s cool skin draped over someone else’s frame. Carlton Drake’s frame. 

Venom spoke with Carlton’s voice.  **You okay, Eddie?**

“Things are definitely looking up. Can we throw Riot out of the airlock now?”

**We can tear him apart like he’s Play-Doh.**

“ _ Dr. Carlton Drake _ is making similes about Play-Doh?”

Venom reached up as though to run a hand through his hair - a very Carlton Drake gesture - but stops when he realizes it’s pointless.  **I find restless play helps to relieve anxiety,** he said primly. 

“Hey, no judgement here.” Eddie could probably stand up on his own now, but Carlton/Venom didn’t seem to want to let go. “We don’t have to deal with Riot right away, do we? Because what I said yesterday about how you can touch me still stands.”

What came from who? Was it Venom or Carlton who wanted to stroke his hair, cradle his head? Who asked if they could kiss him? Eddie, nobody else, said yes. And it was Eddie who felt safe and warm in the arms of two monsters.

Venom slipped back across their lips, but unlike Anne, Carlton Drake didn’t instantly push him away. His fingers tightened on Eddie’s shoulders and his lips parted. The stars outside looked on, impassive.

“Alright,” Carlton said finally, a flush in his cheeks. “Riot?” 

“Where is he?”

“He’s in one of the containment units. I told him I needed to take care of some human things and he wanted out.”

\--

Carlton Drake, big surprise, turned out to be better at piloting his own spaceship than Riot had been. His hands skittered across the controls like they had minds of their own, and he was too focused to even care that the ear protection had severely mussed his hair.

Eddie and Venom spectated from a back seat.

**He has a very disorganized mind,** said Venom reflectively.

“Carlton Drake?  _ Disorganized? _ ”

**Oh, all the stuff about astrophysics and organic chemistry is organized but all his human relationships are in the mental equivalent of junk drawers.**

“Poor guy.”

**Of course, you’re not much better yourself.**

Carlton turned around, freed one of his ears, and grinned. “We’ll be home soon, friends. We’ll all be home soon.”


End file.
